31 October 2005

From A Bestiary of Imaginary Species edited by Nenad Dragicevic: Tastick

Tasticks are pack animals today, but before they were domesticated they lived wild lives on the plains of North America. At that time they stood nine feet tall (twice their current height) roamed in small bands of twenty to thirty adults and juveniles, and fed mostly on a now extinct hallucinogenic variety of mint, traces of which have been detected in the stomachs and bloodstreams of fossilized tasticks. Tasticks probably spent their days in a constant state of altered consciousness. Early human settlers found them easy to tame. Current tastick owners are advised to keep them away from the catnip.